Conditional formatting lets you dynamically style report items based on rules that you define in the Conditional Formatting Rules Dialog. This lets you change the visual appearance of the report based on changing conditions in the report without the need for coding events. Conditional formatting applies to any report item including sections and the report itself, all using the same Conditional Formatting Rules Dialog user interface. See also the Extending the Simple Report Design Quickstart Quickstart for a walkthrough demonstration of the conditional formatting feature.
The ConditionalFormatting property contains a collection of formatting rules that are evaluated in the order they are defined. Each rule has an associated style that lets you change styling characteristics when the rule is satisfied. You can choose to stop evaluating rules if a particular rule condition is met.
Each filter condition is made up of an Expression, Operator and Value. The Expression can be a data field from the Fields collection or defined using the Edit Expression Dialog. Operator can be simple comparison operators but can also include Like and additional operators to include the top and bottom number of records and the top and bottom percentage of records. See the table of operators below. Value can a literal value, "<blank>" or an expression defined in the Edit Expression Dialog. When all the filter conditions are met, the rule is fired and the style is applied.
You can change the Text, Background, Edges and Line Style for the given item using the Style Builder dialog.